Dont Like This Newt Gingrich Wait Five Minutes

January 17, 2012

Terrance Heath

It looks like the old joke about the weather — “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it’ll change” — is also true about Newt Gingrich. If you don’t like this Newt Gingrich, wait five minutes and he’ll change. When it comes to his attack on Mitt Romney’s vulture capitalist past, Newt has changed more often than the weather these last few days.

Well, here’s hoping Newt’s Super PAC friends haven’t already started slashing the video, because Newt changed his mind again. Right out of the gate, at the most recent GOP debate, Newt went on record defending the same anti-Romney attacks he denounced, defended, and then denouced again last week.

The first question at Monday’s GOP debate was directed at former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was asked why he was directing so many attacks at former Gov. Mitt Romney’s business record — which sounded like criticisms being put forward by Democrats.

“Well, first of all, I think that the staying positive through Iowa — through three and a half million dollars of negative attacks — prove you either have to unilaterally disarm and leave the race, or bring up your competitors’ record,” said Gingrich, reminding the audience that Romney and the independent super PAC backing him aggressively went after Gingrich during the Iowa caucuses.

Gingrich pointed out that Romney is the one who brought up his record at Bain Capital, and therefore, “if that’s a part of your campaign, then questioning it has to be equally legitimate.”

“It struck me raising those questions, giving me an opportunity to answer them is exactly what campaigns ought to be about,” he added. “And we need to satisfy the country that whoever we nominate has a record that can stand up to Barack Obama in a very effective way.”

Newt went on to defend himself against Republicans who have attacked him for attacking Romney, and legitimize questioning the role of vulture capitalism in the economy.

“First of all, I don’t think raising questions is a prerogative only of Barack Obama, and I don’t think Republicans should automatically be intimidated because every time you raise a question somebody yells you are doing something the Democrats do. I raise questions that I think are legitimate questions — some of which came out of Wall Street Journal articles. The governor has every opportunity to answer those questions and give us facts and data and that’s part of his responsibility as a candidate, and I think that’s part of what a campaign is about, is to raise questions and see whether your competitor can answer them effectively, before you get to a general election where you know those questions are going to be asked.”

Gingrich, Perry, and others are putting particular focus on the people who lost their jobs as a result of Romney’s Bain Capital. Gingrich’s Super PAC will be running $3.5 million of ads featuring emotional interviews with some of them.

But what, exactly, are Romney’s opponents proposing to do about layoffs that harm so many people? Millions of Americans have lost their jobs over the last four years and as a result have often lost their health insurance, their homes, and their savings.

Are Gingrich, Perry, and others proposing to expand health insurance coverage for jobless Americans and their families? All I hear from the Republicans is their determination to repeal the law that President Obama championed which still leaves millions of Americans uninsured. Do Romney’s opponents have plans to keep people in their homes even when theyve lost their jobs and cant pay their mortgages? No. Do they propose expanding unemployment insurance? If memory serves, most of them were opposed to the last extension.

Im all in favor of reforming capitalism, but you’ll permit me some skepticism when it comes to criticisms of Bain Capital coming from Romney’s Republican opponents. None of these Republican candidates has exactly distinguished himself with new ideas for giving Americans more economic security. To the contrary until the assault on Romney and Bain Capital every one of them has been a cheerleader for financial capitalism of the most brutal sort.

About Terrance Heath

Terrance Heath is the Online Producer at Campaign for America's Future. He has consulted on blogging and social media consultant for a number of organizations and agencies. He is a prominent activist on LGBT and HIV/AIDS issues.